Bold Allocations, Seed to Series A Benchmarks, LPAC Best Practices, Endowment Pressures, Villi Iltchev’s Fund I, LP Relationship Building, Thomas Kristensen on Origins, 2024 VC Trends, Project Europe, DC’s Tech Surge & More
Ed Grefenstette, CIO of The Dietrich Foundation, sits with Ted Seides to cover the Foundation’s bold approach to illiquid investments, with 90% of assets invested in VC and PE, its governance structure, and its thematic focus on innovation and emerging markets. Along the way, Ed shares insights into managing liquidity, constructing the portfolio, selecting managers, and navigating geopolitical risk to maintain conviction in an uncomfortably different strategy.
Fundraising Milestones to Cross the Seed to Series A Chasm in Application Software
Daniel Chesley, Principal at Work-Bench, surveyed 30 VCs on what it takes to raise a Series A in application software, highlighting updated benchmarks for ARR, growth, and retention. AI is raising the bar, with investors expecting faster traction, stickier usage, and clearer differentiation.
How a Venture Fund (Ours!) Actually Works with their LPAC
Hunter Walk shares how Homebrew engages its LPAC for both standard approvals and strategic guidance, from fund extensions to values-driven decisions—underscoring the importance of trusted, long-term LP relationships.
This month, Jack Altman, Managing Partner at Alt Capital and founder of Lattice, launched a brand new podcast called Uncapped. In his first episode, Jack speaks with Shaun Maguire, a Partner at Sequoia Capital, who led their investments into SpaceX, The Boring Co, and X among others. Prior to Sequoia Shaun co-founded a cybersecurity company which was acquired for $1B and worked at DARPA. They cover trust in the media, tech's political flip and investing in outliers.
Endowments Have Long Been a Backbone of VC. But They're Facing Pressure on Multiple Fronts
Endowments, historically a core source of VC capital, are under real pressure—between proposed tax hikes, NIL-driven donor shifts, reduced federal funding, and liquidity challenges. Meghan Reynolds, Head Capital Formation & Talent at Altimeter, outlines the stress on this channel she believes will have real impact on venture fundraising in the coming years.
llegal Immigrant to $160M Fund 1: Inside Villi Iltchev’s Journey Building Category Ventures
Villi Iltchev, founder of Category Ventures, reflects on three decades in enterprise software—from building Salesforce Ventures to early bets on GitLab, Zapier, and Airtable. He shares personal backstory, lessons from raising Fund I, and hard-won advice on profitability, M&A, and why seed funds matter.
Franchise Funds: Is Being a VC Franchise the Ultimate Goal with Thomas Kristensen
Thomas Kristensen, Partner at LGT Capital Partners, has decades of experience backing the top players in venture, but as an LP, doesn’t love the term "franchise fund.” He sits down with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss why GPs can’t rest on their laurels, that being a franchise shouldn’t be every VC’s ultimate goal, how LPs can dig deep to find firms with a great founder product, and avoid ones that may look like franchises but could have already peaked.
Minisode:
Franchise Funds:
Is Venture Broken?
Origins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Laura Thompson, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to riff on her recent conversation with Thomas. Together they discuss 2025’s sluggish exit market and whether or not that’s a sign that venture is broken, as well as the importance of reinventing yourself to stay current with the market.
Featuring Sapphire Partners
ARTICLE
LPs Build New Relationships Amid Challenges for VC
Global venture funding rose to $314 billion in 2024, with AI driving nearly a third of all investment. Late-stage deals surged in Q4, while early-stage remained steady and seed funding lagged. Beezer Clarkson weighed in on how an IPO market recovery in 2025 could unlock more capital for venture.
AI defined venture in 2024—driving innovation, dealmaking, and valuations—while crypto rebounded and secondaries hit record highs. Despite headwinds in fundraising and exits, long-term performance and a growing IPO pipeline may offer reasons for optimism heading into 2025, according to TrueBridge.
The boom times of 2022 have come to an end. The LP base has downsized, anchor checks have shrunk, and venture fund managers are adapting to a new reality. Carta shares the latest data on performance, including IRR, DPI, TVPI, and more.
Project Europe, a New Early-Stage Fund, will Back People Under 25 to Build the Next Tech Titan
Project Europe is a new $10M fund backing under-25 founders in Europe building technical solutions to hard problems, with support from 128 tech leaders including the founders of Klarna and SoundCloud. The initiative aims to spark the next generation of global tech giants from within the region.
What the Dot-Com Bust Can Tell Us about Today’s AI Boom
Several of the 200+ executive actions President Trump enacted in March could impact venture capital. A popular belief among VCs is that Trump’s pro-business approach is also good for their business. But they’re also cautioning that his time in office could impact sectors differently. And key policy details remain under wraps.
Trump's Tech Posse is Bringing a Startup Gold Rush to DC
Washington, DC is emerging as a serious tech and venture hub, fueled by the presence of top VCs, defense tech momentum, and Silicon Valley elites now holding federal roles.
Nothing presented within this article is intended to constitute investment advice, and under no circumstances should any information provided herein be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”). Information provided reflects Sapphires’ views as of a time, whereby such views are subject to change at any point and Sapphire shall not be obligated to provide notice of any change. No assumptions should be made that any investment listed above were or will be profitable. Various content and views contained within this article represent those of third party guests, which do not necessarily reflect the views of Sapphire. Such views are subject to change at any point and do not in any way represent official statements by Sapphire.Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or the actual experience may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in any statement made. Nothing contained in this article may be relied upon as a guarantee or assurance as to the future success of any particular company. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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